Some people pay only passing attention to government. If you ask them why they have such little interest in legislative happenings, many say they believe lawmakers have little impact on their lives.

Well, more than a hundred families across northern Missouri are finding out just how much government action - or in this case, inaction - can mean, and it’s time for them and the rest of us to step up our calls to elected officials and demand change.

Call it a fiscal cliff or sequestration, either way it’s the same thing. The Budget Control Act of 2011, a series of deep, harmful cuts, designed to never actually see the light of day, instead serving as a catalyst for Democrats and Republicans to compromise on a deficit reduction plan.

When the latter didn’t happen, the former did, in part beginning a 5 percent annual cut to Head Start funding for the next decade. The program that provides day care and early childhood education for children in working, low-income families will be able to serve 44 few kids in northeast Missouri, 40 fewer kids in the Green Hills Head Start area, 20 in Moberly, 20 in Macon. Even if your area avoided the first round of cuts, it’s unlikely you can dodge the next decade’s worth.

When the nation’s airports experienced delays due to sequestration-enacted furloughs for air traffic controllers, Congress took action.

Why, then, are they choosing to allow disadvantaged children to suffer?

We urge Rep. Sam Graves, Sen. Claire McCaskill and Sen. Roy Blunt to take action. We urge you, our readers and northern Missouri citizens, to call on them to do so.